The United States sports betting industry just continues to grow, but things haven’t always been working out well for states or the operators. There have been some recent issues pop up that potentially create some challenges for the industry, and it will be interesting to see what comes next.
Professional leagues are fully in support of legal sports betting, but they also are finding that players are breaking the anti-gambling rules. The NCAA has not been in favor of legal sports betting, and there have been some scandals over the last few months at that level.
There is no doubt that the U.S. sports betting industry is going to continue to get bigger, but operators and regulators are forced to make some changes.
Caesars Ending Deals with Colleges
Caesars Sportsbook is one of the biggest names in the sports betting industry, and the company has announced a big change that will hopefully have a positive impact. Caesars is ending sports betting partnerships with Louisiana State University and Michigan State University, and this decision is applauded by many.
It was the athletic departments at both schools that actually confirmed the initial report, and both schools were facing tons of pressure to end the partnerships. There were still a few years left on each deal, and the athletic departments will be losing out on some revenue.
This is not the first time that deals of this nature were ended, as two major universities also decided to end deals with PointsBet. The University of Maryland and Colorado University both got out of deals, and the Colorado/PointsBet deal was the first of this kind in the injury.
Federal lawmakers are concerned that these partnerships are targeting individuals that are younger than 21, and therefore are not legally able to wager on sporting events.
NCAA Institutions Investigating Athletes
The NCAA has been dealing with some sports betting scandals over the last few weeks, and it could lead to some pretty big sanctions. Athletes at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University were both found to have wagered on sporting events, and that’s against NCAA rules and regulations.
The state of Ohio was also forced to remove betting options on the Alabama baseball team after some suspicious activity was taking place in one of their games. Alabama was forced to fire their head baseball coach based on what took place, but it’s unclear if a game was actually thrown.
NFL Players Continue to Bet
The National Football League has a strict policy against sports betting, but several players continue to break that rule. First it was Calvin Ridley that was betting on Atlanta Falcons games while injured, and it earned him a massive suspension.
A handful of players from the Detroit Lions were also found to have bet on sporting events, and the league was forced to hand out a number of punishments. Now, the league is investigating Isaiah Rodgers Sr. of the Indianapolis Colts, and he is expected to receive a massive suspension.
